Show of hands. How many of us have been driving down a highway – perhaps going a mile or 20 over the speed limit – when the blue lights begin flashing in our rearview mirrors? Our initial reactions aren’t going to be to argue, act rude or belligerent, right? Why? Because it’s common sense not to smart talk the police. Simple rules of the road.

Just like there are common sense rules of the road, there are also a few “unwritten” rules in public accounting that those starting out in the industry, as well as professionals with a few miles ...

In all my years of practice in public and private accounting, I have never known a U.S. corporate tax structure much different than what we have today. Yes, there have been changes throughout the years, but there has not been fundamental corporate tax reform since President Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 on the South Lawn of the White House on Oct. 22, 1986. Among its many changes, the 1986 Act lowered the top corporate tax rate from 46 percent to 34 percent. In 1993, that top rate was raised to 35 percent where it has remained ...

ATLANTA – Mar. 27, 2017 – Windham Brannon, a leading provider of tax, audit and advisory services, has been named one of the “Top Workplaces in Metro Atlanta” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Windham Brannon ranked No. 21 in the mid-sized company category.

Small- to medium-sized business (SMB) owners often wear many hats. They’re customer service reps, HR directors, marketing managers, IT specialists…even accountants. Month in and month out, they juggle resources, tight budgets, overhead and cash flow. It’s hard to find the time to manage it all and stay productive―and keep the business profitable.

ATLANTA – January 26, 2017 – 2017 marks a monumental milestone for Windham Brannon. The Atlanta-based leading provider of tax, audit and advisory services will celebrate 60 years of business servicing clients across a myriad of industries and segments.

ATLANTA – December 14, 2016 – Windham Brannon, a leading provider of tax, audit, accounting and advisory services, has named Courtnay Bazemore and Kerry Buchan shareholders at the firm, effective January 1, 2017.

In 2014, the European Union (EU) accused Ireland of bypassing international tax rules by allowing Apple to avoid paying taxes on tens of billions of dollars of income, in exchange for maintaining jobs and a presence in Ireland. The European Commission (EC), which acts as executive of the EU, charged that Ireland violated the EU rules which prevent members from using targeted tax breaks to gain an edge over other EU members.

The weather affects consumers’ behavior in terms of what products they buy, where they buy them, and in what quantity. Even if a business knows how normal weather affects its earnings, unexpected abnormal weather present their own risks. Today, weather risk management is still in its early days. The majority of businesses do not hedge against weather risks, nor do they have an accurate view on how much is at risk.

As states struggle to align their tax codes with the modern service economy, expanding sales taxes to include activities like personal care, home repair, funeral services, computer maintenance and similar enterprises would seem to be a logical move. But states are finding it's not so easy. Twenty-three state legislatures considered proposals this year to impose taxes on at least some services. But so far, none has made it into law intact -- and most died outright.

Humanity has an urgent need to fight climate change, and businesses can play a key role in doing so. But in many businesses, resources are allocated according to short-term, bottom-line pressures. Thus executives need a way to quantify the financial benefits of reducing their firm’s greenhouse gas emissions.

A recent accounting standards update helps entities evaluate whether transactions should be accounted for as acquisitions or disposals of assets or as businesses. The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Accounting Standards Update 2017-01 “Business Combinations (Topic 805): Clarifying the Definition of a Business,” states that a business has the following: 2. Processes applied to those inputs; and 3.

The Internal Revenue Service streamlined the rules Tuesday to make it easier for 401(k)s and similar employer-sponsored retirement plans to make loans and hardship distributions to victims of Hurricane Irma and members of their families. The relief is similar to relief provided recently to victims of Hurricane Harvey. The IRS is also providing tax-filing and payment relief to Irma victims (see IRS offers tax filing relief to Hurricane Irma victims in Florida and Puerto Rico).

Fundraising season never really ends, but with the busiest months of the year for major-gift officers right around the corner, now is a good time to brush up on the best ways to attract wealthy donors. High-net-worth philanthropists are often bombarded with gift requests from nonprofits they don’t know well. The Chronicle mined its recent coverage of big donors for the best suggestions on how fundraisers can elevate their organization’s pitch above the din of the crowd.

In talking with the leaders of nonprofit organizations across the sector, there is a single truism that undergirds all of our conversations: limits on overhead create a pressure that deeply impacts the choices and tradeoffs leaders wrestle with every day. At Bridgespan, we have spent the last decade hearing this story from nonprofit leaders, and in turn, working with funders to counter the “overhead myth.”

The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission released a long-awaited update Wednesday to its ERM Framework: Enterprise Risk Management–Integrating with Strategy and Performance, the first since 2004. The updated framework, developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers under the direction of the COSO board, aims to help organizations improve their approach to managing risk.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Regulators must do more to help mom-and-pop investors better understand the potential risks posed by cyber crime and new technologies used to commit fraud, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton said on Tuesday.

There may be nothing more certain than death and taxes, but Americans like to push thoughts of that first topic away. Perhaps that's why almost three-fourths of U.S. small businesses don't have a succession plan and most small business owners don't have a will. That's according to the 2017 Make-A-Will-Month survey by Rocket Lawyer, an online provider of legal services.

– Business executives maintained their generally upbeat view of prospects for the U.S. economy, and have upgraded expectations for profit and revenue growth over the next 12 months, according to the third-quarter AICPA Economic Outlook Survey , which polls chief executive officers, chief financial officers, controllers and other certified public accountants in U.S. companies who hold executive and senior management accounting roles.

The Supreme Court of South Dakota heard oral arguments in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. earlier this week. That case involves a challenge to a South Dakota statute that requires vendors to collect the state’s use tax based solely on their economic connections with the state—a requirement that seems to directly contradict the rule embraced by the Supreme Court in Quill Corporation v. North Dakota. What was unusual about the case is that the state argued that it should lose.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board released its long-awaited hedge accounting standard this week, but companies may want to be careful about adopting it early, or else they could miss out on some one-time benefits. The accounting standards update for hedging, which FASB issued Monday, allows companies takes effect for public companies in 2019 and private companies in 2020 (see FASB releases hedge accounting standard).